What are the meaningful implications of technological innovation? This is the question Janet Balis (MBA ’99) found herself asking at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Breaking down her key insights from the conference, Balis offers several salient and thought-provoking questions for those seeking to derive more impact from innovation than simply shiny, exciting new gadgets.
While still the gold standard in clinical research, randomized controlled trials can be costly, time-consuming, and limited in their scope. This case from Professor Ariel Stern explores the potential of an innovative new approach to clinical trials and cancer therapies – adaptive platform trials. Could this design offer a more flexible and efficient way forward for clinical trials as a whole?
Healthcare companies are lagging behind. Oftentimes, clinical trial research still uses old-school processes like physical protocol binders, paper diaries, and decade old-software. Furthermore, only 5% of the U.S. population participates in clinical research. Andrea Coravos (MBA ’17) believes the time is ripe for innovative technologies – from virtual trials and digital biomarkers to improved software tools – to improve clinical trial execution and encourage broader participation from the public.
Despite its centrality to the functioning of society, the technology that governs contracts, transactions, and record keeping has not kept up with the digital transformation of the economy. Blockchain, however, has the potential to change all that – that is, if it can overcome multiple barriers to adoption. In this article for HBR, DI professors Marco Iansiti and Karim Lakhani share what it would really take for blockchain to become the revolutionary technology everyone hopes it will be.
In the shifting digital landscape, it can be all too easy to cry wolf. The decline of big box stores in particular has left retailers anxiously worrying about the future of the industry. But the retail apocalypse isn’t all that it may seem, and as with all things in the digital economy, the story isn’t so much about death as it is about disruption. And as it turns out, the future of (at least some) retail is looking just fine.
As the digital landscape evolves, shoppers are becoming more accustomed to having what they want, when they want it. In an age when information is ubiquitous and consumers are in “shopping mode” all the time, an over-emphasis on the holiday season no longer makes sense for either customer or retailer. Perhaps it’s time for a new model.
Assortment rotation – swapping out products that are displayed by a store – is a popular business strategy for brick-and-mortar and online stores alike. But when and how should stores release a few products at a time versus revealing an entire product line? This research from Assistant Professor Kris Johnson Ferreira and Visiting Scholar Joel Goh is helping retailers fine tune that answer.
Adtech is broken. This is the central tenant of founding director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism Emily Bell’s view on the state of journalism today. With the worrying rise of the role of online advertising in political machinations, Bell argues those in the adtech know have been at best unaware and at worst complicit in failing to raise the alarm about the implications of these powerful technologies. What role do advertisers and brands have to play in developing a healthy democracy? It turns out quite a lot.
With promises of making big money off of readers without relying on subscriptions and hundreds of alleged partners who’ve signed on as early testers, publishing startup Invisibly might just be the next big thing/one of media’s best kept secrets. But if it’s not subscriptions, and it’s not advertising, what exactly is Invisibly’s play – and how can they be so confident it will translate into billions?
